Tuberculosis is a disease that has, for many ages, been associated with all groups of minorities, immigrants, and outcasts.  The effects of the disease have always had profound influences on society.  Like all diseases the societies they afflict are permanently changed.

One of the most difficult aspects of a disease is not the mortality rates, managing the spread, or even the treatment of the illness.  It has and always will be the the way humans react to the introduction of this invisible killer.  Tuberculosis merely reflects this damning phenomenon.  The response to TB was a perfect reflection of how even pseudo science can be still seen in the modern age.  From the bloodletting practices of the medieval ages, to the apparent cure by fresh air for the deadly symptoms of TB.  This along with the use of sanitariums out west in the continental US merely wasted both the money and precious last moments of those infected by the disease.  While it was not as harmful as the heat therapy used for smallpox, the sanitarium did little to actually help.  In reality it merely served as a nice place to slowly die for thousands.  One benefit of these institutions could be the almost accidental quarantine they created by instigating massive migrations of those infected out west.  Other than this phenomenon pseudo science only served to give hope to the dying and their loved ones, but did not help to understand or combat the spread.

The reaction of the larger percentage of the population, those not infected, often as an equal impact on the society as the actual disease.  For many cities in the US urban planning was improved by increasing the presence of parks and recreation areas that, according to the leading theories, would allow for clean air to treat those afflicted.  While it did not necessarily cure TB, parks served a key role in making city life much more bearable and provided many with fresh air, exercise, and recreation to occupy their time.  The other effects of TB included a fashion change, many considered facial hair to be a sign of masculinity and manliness, yet after TB struck cities it became a stigma to have one.  Many thought that a beard or mustache could harbor the disease and spread it.

The largest improvement we as a species have made against the ravages of nature have been the ability to not only treat, but to learn about the diseases that have taken so many lives.  For many it seems obvious that the eradication of these diseases should be an effort undertaken by all.  The sad reality is that while our science can answer what an antigen is, where it came from, and how to treat it for many these questions are inconsequential and mean nothing in comparison to political, cultural, and social dogma.  It is the fight against TB that governments and scientist from around the globe are beginning to realize that global politics can be just as inflexible and harsh as the persecution of Jews for the plague.  It is still a reality that instead of a microorganism being blamed for an epidemic the majority of the time it is perceived that it is “those people” that have brought the disease.  TB is no exception, for everywhere it afflicted fingers were always pointed at a being that could be seen, felt, or in many cases tortured.  It is often the consequences of the violence of human nature that condemns an infected area, not the disease itself.